ETO Apps Reference

Guidelines for ETO apps

• Like in all apps that use the UI Rules, include in the root design UiPartMixin, and use Property child rules to define the user-interface.
• If the parameters of your model are invalid, turn off the display of the model. To turn off the display, set the relevant parts to NullDesign, display some other part (like a 3D error symbol), or use another technique.
• If useful, use the following rules:

<%%Category("UI")> _
        Parameter Rule Actions As List = { "CreateDWF","CreateSTEP" } '"CreateAssemblyZip","CreateCATIA"
       ]
        Rule displayName As String = "Pile of Blocks"

Use standard Configurator 360 actions

Configurator360.autodesk.com provides several programmed actions on the Options tab Downloads sub tab. These actions are immediately available for the non-ETO types of designs. The following describes some techniques to reuse the actions from ETO applications.

For more information about Tools actions in Configurator 360, see UI Tools actions.

Child DWFOutputFile As :OutputDWF
		FileName = %%PRODUCT + ".dwf"
	End Child

Standard actions summary:

Use scenarios

1. Use C360 as-is. Include the Action Name (column 1) into your Actions Rule:

   Rule Actions As List = { "CreateDWF","CreateSTEP" }

   This rule creates the Actions with the exact functionality as on C360.

2. When selecting to pass the nondefault set of Intent Parameters into action (besides inclusion of the Action Name (column 1) into Actions Rule), create a child with the name from column 3 of the Design from column 2.

   Child DWFOutputFile As :OutputDWF
   FileName = %%PRODUCT + ".dwf"
   EnablePrinting? = False
   End Child

   In Drawings, to use any drawing outputs, create a child. Pass the Lists of the ETO Drawings Parts necessary to output.

   Rule TheDrawings As List = { Root.Drawing1, Root.Drawing2}
   
   Child DxfOutputFile As :OutputDrawingsDxf
   	ExportDrawings = TheDrawings
   	FileNamePrefix = %%PRODUCT
   End Child

3. If more granularity is required for the Output action, create the custom action and use the appropriate ETO Export Design. For more information, see Export Mixin <IvExportMixin> .

Implementing custom output actions on C360 side

The core Intent Design that is a base for all C360 outputs is OutputMixin. For more information, see Configurator 360 Output <Configurator360Output> .

The workhorse Intent Rule is Data Rule. This rule is expected to be implemented in the derived Design. This Rule is intentionally Uncached. The purpose of the Rule is to return byte array (byte [ ] in C# notation) of the data that represents the file image of the specified output format.

The Data may return NoValue when the output is not available.

OutputInfo Rule combines the values of the supplied Parameters into Intent List.

Design CustomOutput : OutputMixin

'# ------------------------------
'# PARAMETERS
'# ------------------------------

<Your parameters>

'# ------------------------------
'#  C360 PARAMETERS
'# ------------------------------
' C360 - Required parameters

<%%Category("Outputs")> _
Parameter Rule FileName As String = "CustomOutput.zip"

<%%Category("Outputs")> _
Parameter Rule FileExtension As String = ".zip"

<%%Category("Outputs")> _
Parameter Rule FileType As String = "My Custom Output"

' C360 - Outputs

<%%Category("Outputs")> _
Uncached Rule OutputInfo As List = { FilePath, FileType, Filename, FileExtension, Data}

<%%Category("Outputs")> _
Uncached Rule Data = MyBytesCreator() ' assumes zip array

End Design